Early Morning Run

Written By: Samuel J. Hoppe

It started off as a normal day. I arrived at my running spot, parked my car on the side of the road and prepared for my run by warming up and doing stretches. I had planned to run 10 miles, it was five am right now so I would have plenty of time to finish running, clean up and be able to get to work by eight am. I approached the road and tapped the start run button on my Garmin watch and off I went. With the intention to stay at a nine minute pace for the whole run. I had hit the 4 mile mark and all was going well. The plan was to turn around when I hit five miles and repeat the same five miles back to my car. Suddenly I noticed another figure running towards me.

"That's strange I've never seen another runner out here this early before." I murmured. We kept running closer and closer to each other and I knew we'd cross paths before I hit my half way point. As we got closer I noticed the man's strange appearance, it looked like just a dark shadowy figure with no defining characteristics, but I figured it was due to how dark it was out. 

As we passed each other I nodded towards the man and said with a smile "Gotta love a good early morning run." The man didn't acknowledge me and kept running. That's weird I thought, even up close that man still looked like a shadowy figure. I tried to shake off the strange encounter, I mean I'm a 6ft 3 guy that hits the gym everyday and runs every morning, I shouldn't have much to worry about, right? So I got to my half way point and turned around to run back to my car. But there he was. The man was standing about a quarter mile away. He was Just standing there smiling. A big white smile from ear to ear was all I could see aside from his shadowy appearance. Come to think of it, that's the same spot I had passed him at. Had this thing stopped running and been staring at me since I passed it? What the hell's going on? Who is this guy? Maybe it's some dumb prank one of the guys back at the office is pulling. I started running back and shouted "very funny, whoever is under that costume you're doing a great job at freaking me out but you can take it off now." I said to the figure. But I got nothing in return. I figured I could handle myself if that thing tried anything. So I just kept going as it stared and smiled at me. I ran past it trying to ignore it but when I did I felt a cold shiver down my spine. I ran a little further then turned my head back to see what the figure was doing. It was running towards me. What the fuck. I was getting a really weird feeling now. I turned back again and it was running like crazy, its arms above its heads flailing wildly with that huge white smile sprawled across its face. I felt as though if that thing caught up to me, I would die. I started sprinting as fast as I could to escape that thing and get in my car as fast as possible. I checked my watch, it said I was running at a six minute pace per mile. That's a tough pace to hold, but I knew I could do it for the remaining three miles. I turned to check if that thing was still there, it was. But much farther back than before. ‘Good, I'm faster. I’ll just hold this pace and I should have no problem making it to my car and getting away from that thing.’ I thought to myself. 

My Garmin watch beeped to tell me I had completed my ten miles. What?! That's impossible! My car’s not here, and this doesn't look like where I started my run at. I turned around at exactly five miles. I would be at my car if I completed a total of ten miles. This doesn't make any sense! I turned to look behind me to see if that thing was still chasing me. It was. Running and smiling with that creepy smile. Straight towards me and it had gotten closer, much closer. I turned back and kept running as fast as I could but I knew I couldn't keep this pace up for long. I pushed myself until my legs slowed, and cramped. I wasn’t prepared for this. I was at my limit but I knew if I stopped something terrible would happen. So I trudged on as best I could. My run tracking app notified me I had just completed my 20th mile. I was exhausted, and my car was still nowhere in sight. I couldn't have gone the wrong way, I just ran straight 5 miles and turned around and ran back on the same road. There’s no side streets out here, no turns, just a straight road. What the hells going on! I turned to check how far back that creature was and it was right behind me. I watched it reach out with its shadowy hand and there was nothing I could do. I let out a scream of horror as I watched its shadowy fingers grab my shoulder.

"Hey, have you seen Jack?" A man in the office asked another man. 

"No I haven't.” The man checked his watch. “Hm, 8:30. It's not like him to be late.”

“He’s always early. I know he runs down this stretch of road on the outskirts of town. Maybe something happened?” 

“I'm sure he’s fine but we should have someone check to make sure he's alright.”

A police officer was cruising around town when he received a call about a man who went for a morning run and didn’t show up for work. He was asked to check it out since his co workers were worried he may have gotten hurt or into an accident. The officer turned his lights on and sped towards the road jack was running on. Jack’s car was quickly found but Jack was nowhere to be seen. So the officer continued in his patrol car slowly down the road looking for any signs of Jack.  Until, he spotted a shiny metal object in the center of the road. The officer jumped out of his car.

“Is that a hacksaw? Way out here?”  The officer noticed a pool of blood just beyond the hacksaw with a trail of blood leading further down. The officer knew something bad had to have happened. He called it in and asked for backup. After doing so, he followed the blood trail until he found what was making it. It was Jack. "Oh my god! Stop!" The officer shouted. The officer saw Jack with both his feet hacked off at the ankles. Jack was on his hands and knees crawling down the road with his feet in each hand murmuring "Can't stop running.. if I stop he'll catch me.. If that thing catches me I’ll die.." continually repeating those words as the officer stared in horror at the bloody mess slowly crawling down the road. 

The End.